Well, here we go again.
Mikel Arteta will meet the press for the first time ahead of a Premier League game as the 2024-25 season kicks off. To be fair to the manager, he’s been doing the rounds this week. There was a big interview on Sky Sports, and a nice one with our pal Rog from Men in Blazers, and throughout the messaging has been similar.
So much chat about mentality and how this team goes again after last season. Creating the right kind of environment, one which challenges the players to do even better than last time out. Easier said than done, of course, but if we know anything about Mikel Arteta that’s what he is going to demand from everyone.
I suspect there will be questions about transfers which he will play with a straight bat, giving nothing much away either about departures or arrivals. We might get a line about how we’re open to doing more business, but that’s as far as it will go. Then we might get a bit about injuries and who is available, how good Wolves are, and after that let’s wait and see what else crops up. There’s very rarely anything too juicy, quite deliberately too, so I don’t expect that to change today.
Looking around at the news, it seems as if Bournemouth’s interest in Eddie Nketiah is over after they agreed a deal for Porto striker Evanilson (Andoni Iraola insisting he can ‘Bring me to life’). He arrives in England on the back of 25 goal season for his club, including some Champions League goals, and it makes Eddie’s return of 6 in the same campaign look somewhat meagre. What now for Eddie though? Your guess is as good as mine.
I don’t think it’s beyond the realms of possibility that our desire to sell has to be matched with the reality of the market. If a late bid from somewhere emerges, great – but right now, I think we have to be open to the idea he should leave on loan, with the hope that a decent season somewhere else means there might be more interest next summer. It’s not ideal, but what else is there? I don’t think it does him, or us, any good if he stays. Which isn’t to say I don’t think he’d do his best or work hard, of course he would, but like Reiss Nelson, he’s at an age where he should be playing regularly somewhere, and barring some kind of injury crisis, it’s not going to be at Arsenal.
Meanwhile, the Mikel Merino talks continue with some suggestion he’ll be omitted from their squad for the weekend game against Rayo Vallecano. Another one to just wait and see what happens, but what’s clear is that what we have right now is what we’ll have against Wolves on Saturday, and as Arteta has said repeatedly, his first job is to get the most out of the players at his disposal.
Elsewhere, I thought this was an interesting little video on the official site with Martin Odegaard chatting to Ethan Nwaneri. It pushes the 17 year old just a little more into the spotlight, and I’m so curious to see how he is used this season. He’s had a real taste of first team football during the summer, playing with (and against) men in front of big crowds, and he – and the other youngsters – are going to be hungry for more.
There have been stories about Odegaard has been mentoring Nwaneri behind the scenes, and I love the idea of that. He was a star at 15 before he chose Real Madrid; Nwaneri made his debut at the same age – making him the youngest ever player in the Premier League. That’s down to talent and hard work (and a little bit of opportunity), but imagine yourself back when you were 15 and having that kind of a landmark event in your life. To have someone like Odegaard in your corner to offer advice about how to deal with it on and off the pitch must be fantastic, and I think it speaks very highly as to how holistic the approach is at the club right now on all kinds of levels.
For some extra reading this morning, here’s the traditional Arseblog Big Season Preview 2024-25. I’m joined by Andrew Allen and Tim Stillman to assess the state of the squad as it stands from front to back, and give an overall view of where we think we are (bearing in mind the window is still open). These were all written separately to ensure all thoughts are our own, but it’s interesting to note some common ground in certain areas.
Later on, we’ll have our first preview podcast of the new season over on Patreon, so please do join us for that as we look ahead to Wolves, and run an eye over the rest of the weekend’s fixtures. Aside from that, there’s a new Arsecast available below, in which I chat separately to Amy Lawrence, Nick Wright (Sky Sports), Adrian Clarke and Dara O Briain about the new season, and loads of other stuff too.
We’ll bring you all the press conference stuff on Arseblog News later on too. For now, have a good one.
